


Triage Zero

by Asclepihex



Category: Caduceus | Trauma Center Series, Mad Rat Dead (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood, Body Horror, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Shapeshifting, because it's my fanfic and i get to choose the gender, heart said they/them rights, relatively calm for now but that is going to CHANGE
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28400325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asclepihex/pseuds/Asclepihex
Summary: A very self-indulgent crossover.Mad Rat and Heart get themselves into a bit of a pickle, and it all starts with a dance with near-death.(This story includes illustrations, some of which may contain body horror and blood. If you don't want to see either of these, please turn off images - I will try my best to provide IDs.)
Relationships: Mad Rat & Heart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	Triage Zero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every story has to start somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time using AO3; apologies if anything is formatted strangely or looks a bit odd. This isn't beta read, either.  
> Anyways- uh. Hello! I'm Hex and I hope you enjoy my ridiculously self-indulgent crossover fanfic.
> 
> I'll likely provide a recap note at the start of every chapter after this one that's kind of like a TL;DR of the previous chapter. I'd still highly recommend reading the whole thing, though!
> 
> One super important thing to note is that this takes place in an AU with mild canon divergence; Mad Rat and Heart are still undead despite this being post-canon. They're well aware that Rat God is a threat.

“It’s getting dark, Mad Rat…”  
“Then we’d better find a place to set up camp for the night, huh?”

And so, the duo did, perching on one of a nearly leafless tree’s branches and sleeping there for a good few hours. By the time they were awake, one of its last leaves had fallen right on Mad’s head.

* * *

“Good morning!” Heart chirped, quickly shaking themselves awake with a smile, moving towards where the sun shone brightest. It was a surprisingly warm autumn morning, the sun’s rays gracing the cloudless city skies with an inviting embrace.  
Hopefully, this was a sign that today was going to be a good day.

Mad Rat awoke with little more than a small yawn, shaking his head to get the leaf that had landed there out of his eyes. “..Good morning to you too, buddy. It’s pretty warm for how late in the year it is, isn’t it…”  
“Eh, I don’t mind.” He chuckled lightly, dropping from the branch and onto the ground by one of the tree’s roots and leaning on its side.

For a moment, the two rested, regaining their bearings in preparation for their next travels. It wasn’t often that Mad Rat and Heart stayed in one spot for long. Today, however, may bring something different.  
Well, it likely would _have_ been different had a wrench not been thrown into the machine.

A soft _thud_ could be heard nearby, just as Mad Rat was beginning to relax. “Gah- do you know what that was?!” He snapped, jumping onto his feet and turning in the general direction the sound could be heard from. “Sounds like something fell to the ground…”

Heart turned towards the noise too, seeming more worried than peeved. “S-should we check it out?”

  
“..I don’t see why not.”  
As the two moved forward, a chilly breeze drifted through the forest, sweeping up fallen leaves as it went along. Mad Rat shuddered as the wind brushed his fur, but it didn’t take long for him to shake it off. He wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings aside from the temperature outside.

Heart, however, was. And they were about to see something best described as ‘horrifying.’

“M-Mad Rat?! A-are-- are you- are you looking at this?”

“Huh? What is it?” Whipping his head around, he-  
“Oh… _oh no…_ ”  
-had seen something downright horrible.

A single rat, slumped on the ground, tears of what seemed to be blood running down its face and staining the ground beneath it with hints of faded red. On its back, there was a strange blackish mark.  
“W-we’d better d-do _something_ , right?” Heart asked, voice full of tension.

“You’re right. We should, but at the same time…” Mad Rat sighed, trying not to let his suspicions get the best of him. “...something about this seems a bit off.”

“Better to try than not to, though, huh…” He crossed his arms, slowly approaching the bleeding rat. “You look pretty roughed up. Did something happen to you out there?”  
The rat didn’t respond, looking up towards the duo with a pleading, horrified expression. It looked as if it could barely move, still as a statue as it lay on the ground in a pool of its own blood…  
And then Mad Rat realized something.

“Are.. are you- are you _melting?!_ ” He asked, taking a few steps back. This wasn’t normal. Something was horribly wrong with this thing; that, or it was something much worse. Hoping it wasn’t the latter, Heart clung to Mad Rat, filled to the brim with worry, when-

_**FWOOSH!** _

_**** _ ****

Somehow, this felt familiar. All too familiar. The one-eyed, catlike beast slowly shambled onto its legs as it reabsorbed its broken disguise and shook itself off, its body restabilizing as it turned its head towards Mad Rat and raised a claw in the air, still as a statue. “...Looks like we’d better get going, then.” With as swift a dash as he could muster, Mad Rat darted away from the strange monster without any second thoughts. He wasn’t willing to risk his - or his heart’s - undead life fighting it at the moment.

It took a while of running to get to a point where he felt he didn’t have to run any longer.

“We… should be safe now, buddy. That thing hurt you, or…”  
“N-nope! Not even a scratch…” Heart chuckled, laughing off a bit of their worries. They were now in the city, beside a lamppost which Mad Rat was half-leaning on, giving himself time to catch his breath. “You’re sure it’s not following us anymore, right?”  
“As I’ll ever be, heart-of-mine.” He chuckled, glancing at his surroundings for a moment to make sure all was well. And he was relieved to not see a single eye staring back at them… well, aside from a pair of curious, greenish-yellow ones. “...eh? Did somethin’ follow us all the way here?”

Almost as soon as he said that, the eyes vanished into the shadows. It seemed like they didn’t like being noticed. “...Weird,” Mad Rat commented as he watched the eyes disappear from his sight.

Heart didn’t notice. “What’s so odd this time? W-was it that monster again?”  
“Didn’t look like it. Had more than one eye, heh!” Mad Rat grinned, standing back up proper and crossing his arms.  
“...that’s a relief.”

“Well, we should probably get going. If that thing is still on our tail, it’s a bad idea to stay in one spot for long, right?” Mad Rat asked. He had been fairly nomadic ever since he managed to break away from his life in the lab - especially so once he had dealt with the threat of him and Heart dying come sunrise. He knew they could only rewind and relive that same day so many times before the scenery became boring.

Heart nodded as Mad Rat began leaping across the city streets, looking for a good place to settle down for the afternoon and possibly even grab a bite to eat. Finding a meal, surprisingly enough, wasn’t too hard for him; it took little effort to scurry off with a small bag of chips, cheese or occasionally even some berries from a local shop. If only he had a better understanding of currency - that way, he could properly thank them for a snack. Eventually, he stopped beside a sign in front of a building. According to this sign, it was a research facility; something he wasn’t particularly fond of.

* * *

“Damn it… surely you could’ve gotten them this time, no?”

The Parasite leaned on thin air with a scowl on her face, staring down Mimolette. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with it by now, besides learning how to pull its strings even further. The ‘Phantom Moon,’ as she had once called it, now stood before her, laying down on the ground in a catlike form with its legs ‘tucked’ (or, for lack of a better term, reabsorbed) into its body.

It looked down at her with a somber expression, its cheeselike shell slowly reformed, a yellowish coat of sludge forming on the tip of its tail.  
“Do you have any better ideas for how we could deal with that rat?”  
“...”  
Mimolette didn’t respond, simply laying there as it dwelled on their options.

“Ah, right. I forgot you couldn’t speak.” Parasite awkwardly chuckled, hands folded together. “I’ll… find something better eventually. Perhaps you could even help me with it.”

‘Perhaps’ was often code for ‘definitely’ in the eyes of the false god. As she stepped away, she took a small slip of paper out of her pocket and began to fiddle with it in her hands before noticing a curious illustration on the front of it: an ominous, yet beautiful illustration depicting a dying figure surrounded by claw-like patterns and butterflies. Curiously, it reminded her of-  
Wait a moment. Mimolette.  
That’s exactly who it reminded her of… could it be her new secret weapon? Was it hiding something?  
…  
No. it couldn’t possibly be hiding anything from her. She was the one who created it, after all; but then again, it was an imperfect creation.  
One she was still learning to control. To strengthen.

But still... she wondered about the drawing she was staring at. Just what was it depicting?


End file.
